Personal Stories and Experiences during the Me-Too Movement
By Matthew Wong, Issue 1 - October 2019
Many Women have spoken up during the #MeToo movement. Photo
credits to ISSAT, DCAF
America Ferrera:
First time I can remember being sexually assaulted I was 9 years old. I
told no one and lived with the shame and guilt thinking all along that I,
a 9-year-old child, was somehow responsible for the actions of a grown
man. I had to see this man on a daily basis for years to come. He would
smile at me and wave, and I would hurry past him, my blood running
cold, my guts carrying the burden of what only he & I knew — that he
expected me to shut my mouth and smile back. Ladies, let’s end this
silence so the next generation of girls won’t have to live with this
bullsh*t.
Bjork:
I am inspired by the women everywhere who are speaking up online to tell
about my experience with a danish director . because i come from a country
that is one of the worlds place closest to equality between the sexes and at the
time I came from position of strength in the music world with hard earned
independence , it was extremely clear to me when i walked into the actresses
profession that my humiliation and role as a lesser sexually harassed being
was the norm and set in stone with the director and a staff of dozens who
enabled it and encouraged it . i became aware of that it is a universal thing
that a director can touch and harass his actresses at will and the institution of
film allows it . when i turned the director down repeatedly he sulked and
punished me and created for his team an impressive net of illusion where i
was framed as the difficult one . because of my strength , my great team and
because I had nothing to lose having no ambitions in the acting world , i
walked away from it and recovered in a years time . i am worried though that
other actresses working with the same man did not . the director was fully
aware of this game and i am sure of that the film he made after was based on
his experiences with me . because i was the first one that stood up to him and
didn’t let him get away with it
Reese Witherspoon:
I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly, and I
found it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate. A lot of the
feelings I’ve been having about anxiety, about being honest, the guilt for not
speaking up earlier or taking action. True disgust at the director who assaulted
me when I was 16 years old and anger that I felt at the agents and the
producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment.
And I wish I could tell you that that was an isolated incident in my career, but
sadly, it wasn’t. I’ve had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual
assault, and I don’t speak about them very often, but after hearing all the
stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight,
the things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not talk about,
it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I felt less alone
this week than I’ve ever felt in my entire career…For the young women in this
room, life is going to be different because we’re with you, we have your back
and it makes me feel better…If we can raise consciousness and really help
create change, that’s what’s going to change this industry and change society.
So I’m so sad that I have to talk about these issues, but it would be, I would be
remiss not to.